Sustainable synthesis of a Zr-based UiO-66 MOF from PET waste for UV-assisted degradation of organic contaminants
- 1Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University Tanta 31527 Egypt
- 2Basic and Applied Science Institute, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology New Borg El-Arab 21934 Egypt
Abstract
The coexistence of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste and persistent organic pollutants in aquatic environments requires comprehensive circular-economy strategies to valorize PET waste into functional materials for water treatment. In this study, post-consumer PET was converted to terephthalic acid (TPA) via a neutral hydrothermal depolymerization process and was used as an organic linker for the synthesis of a Zr-based UiO-66. The recovered linker and synthesized UiO-66 were characterized by FTIR, PXRD, TEM/SAED, nitrogen adsorption–desorption, UV-vis spectroscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and Mott–Schottky analysis. PXRD confirmed UiO-66 crystallinity, while TEM revealed nano-sized polyhedral particles with an average size of approximately 120 nm. The material exhibited a BET surface area of 822.2 m2 g−1, total pore volume of 0.379 cm3 g−1, and average pore diameter of 2.93 nm. Optical and electrochemical analyses showed a band gap of about 3.51 eV, n-type semiconducting behavior, and a flat-band potential of −0.68 V vs. Ag/AgCl. The photocatalytic activity of PET-derived UiO-66 was evaluated using methylene blue (MB) under UV light irradiation. Under optimized conditions, the catalyst achieved about 97.3% degradation with an apparent pseudo-first-order rate constant of 0.024 min−1, which was about 12 times higher than that of direct photolysis. Radical scavengers' experiments showed that hydroxyl radicals (˙OH) acted as major reactive species, followed by superoxide radicals (˙O2−) and photogenerated holes (h+). The catalyst showed good recyclability with about 86% activity retained after five cycles. These results offer an environmentally sustainable approach to recycle PET waste into a useful photocatalyst for water treatment.
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BibTeX
@article{tawakey2026sustainable,
title = {{Sustainable synthesis of a Zr-based UiO-66 MOF from PET waste for UV-assisted degradation of organic contaminants}},
author = {Samar H. Tawakey and A. K. Abou-Seif and Ali H. Gemeay and Mohamad M. Ayad},
journal = {RSC advances},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1039/d6ra06639a},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13656015},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Sustainable synthesis of a Zr-based UiO-66 MOF from PET waste for UV-assisted degradation of organic contaminants
AU - Samar H. Tawakey
AU - A. K. Abou-Seif
AU - Ali H. Gemeay
AU - Mohamad M. Ayad
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
JO - RSC advances
DO - 10.1039/d6ra06639a
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13656015
AB - The coexistence of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste and persistent organic pollutants in aquatic environments requires comprehensive circular-economy strategies to valorize PET waste into functional materials for water treatment. In this study, post-consumer PET was converted to terephthalic acid (TPA) via a neutral hydrothermal depolymerization process and was used as an organic linker for the synthesis of a Zr-based UiO-66. The recovered linker and synthesized UiO-66 were characterized by FTIR, PXRD, TEM/SAED, nitrogen adsorption–desorption, UV-vis spectroscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and Mott–Schottky analysis. PXRD confirmed UiO-66 crystallinity, while TEM revealed nano-sized polyhedral particles with an average size of approximately 120 nm. The material exhibited a BET surface area of 822.2 m2 g−1, total pore volume of 0.379 cm3 g−1, and average pore diameter of 2.93 nm. Optical and electrochemical analyses showed a band gap of about 3.51 eV, n-type semiconducting behavior, and a flat-band potential of −0.68 V vs. Ag/AgCl. The photocatalytic activity of PET-derived UiO-66 was evaluated using methylene blue (MB) under UV light irradiation. Under optimized conditions, the catalyst achieved about 97.3% degradation with an apparent pseudo-first-order rate constant of 0.024 min−1, which was about 12 times higher than that of direct photolysis. Radical scavengers' experiments showed that hydroxyl radicals (˙OH) acted as major reactive species, followed by superoxide radicals (˙O2−) and photogenerated holes (h+). The catalyst showed good recyclability with about 86% activity retained after five cycles. These results offer an environmentally sustainable approach to recycle PET waste into a useful photocatalyst for water treatment.
SN - 2046-2069
ER -